Ice-storm debris cleanup finished

Nearly nine months after the December 2008 ice storm that wreaked havoc on the region, Department of Public Works Superintendent Bill Tuttle has announced that crews finished cleaning debris from streets and roadways on Sept. 2.

"There is one crew still working in the pit grinding the piles of debris and hauling them out. Once they are finished with a final cleanup at the sand pit we will be completely done," said Tuttle.

When all is said and done, Tuttle said Garland Construction, which was awarded the cleanup project bid, will have collected nearly 49,000 cubic yards of debris from the storm at a cost of approximately $926,769. The total includes Garland's charge of $11.48 per cubic yard, $345,000 for monitoring and data collection, and $21,500 for grinding the debris.

"There are small areas on some roads to clean up that we are addressing with our own crew. This will probably be an ongoing theme for some time. [We are] trying to get our town looking good again. [Federal Emergency Management Agency] only let us address the threats to public safety. They do not care what our roads and trees look like when done," said Tuttle.

The DPW is keeping their fingers crossed that FEMA will reimburse 75 percent of the cleanup cost, but Tuttle has low expectations that the state will make good on its promise of covering the remaining 25 percent.

"I'll believe it when I see it. I hope so. The project had its bumps along the way, but overall we got the job done and basically saved $1 million," said Tuttle, referring to the $11.48 per cubic yard bid Garland placed over the second highest bidder at $31 per cubic yard. The large difference led to a bid protest through the Attorney General's office.

"There were many challenges, even right from the beginning with the bid protest. Trying to convince the Attorney General's office that public safety was more important than running the protest through its usual three-month process was not easy and I had to pull some political favors to get our point across. The only thing we pressured them on was expediting their process, so we could get going or re-bid," said Tuttle.

When the cleanup was begun, Tuttle said the DPW ended up with many complaints from residents. The complaints included not taking down dead trees, removing too many trees, trees not marked for removal that residents felt should be, roads being blocked, debris stacked up on private property, trucks and equipment in the roads, lack of detail officers and "more people watching than working."

"Do I think it could have gone smoother? Absolutely. Get rid of FEMA and the monitoring and hire a contractor on our own, pay them ourselves, sell the wood and chips, and probably end up right where we are: on the hook for 25 percent of the cost, basically $225,000," said Tuttle.

Tuttle said the town also spent $170,000 in the storm's immediate aftermath clearing roads.

"It can only get better. I think residents forget that it was a disaster, an uncontrollable event," he said. "Don't get me wrong. There were many that realized the sheer magnitude of the project and appreciated the effort."

One of the biggest challenges, Tuttle said, was getting FEMA, Garland and BDR, the monitoring and data collection company, all on the same page.

"Every time a consideration or agreement on procedure was made, FEMA heads would ship in new personnel and send the others packing to another town," he said. "Then at that point any agreements would be moot, because the new personnel did not know what was agreed upon and the whole thing would start over again. This happened many times during the project, too many times to count. It is definitely one of FEMAs' flaws."

Yet despite the problems along the way, Tuttle said he has many people to thank for helping them achieve their goal of freeing the town from the majority of the debris. He cited Garland, BDR, FEMA, Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, Sterling Police, Sterling Fire, Town Hall, DPW personnel "and everyone else who helped out during the storm, all I can say is thank you for the help and support during the storm and the past 8 1/2 months. It has been a long haul, and I'm relieved that I can get back to the job I was actually hired to do."